The group of 22 tourists was travelling in the White Desert, a rolling plane of sandy dunes and wind-beaten stone when security forces opened fire on them, killing 12 people and wounding 10.
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Egyptian officials said the safari group did not have permission to be in the area, and that troops mistook them for terrorists.
The attack Sunday September 13 killed a total of 12 people and injured a total of 10 more.
As Mashable notes, the Egypt Tourism Authority still markets the area where the tourists were killed as a place for “adventure travel and family fun”, and does not have any warnings abut military operations or terrorist threats posted on its website.
“Mexico condemns these deeds against our citizens and has demanded an exhaustive investigation of what has occurred”, President Enrique Pena Nieto said on his Twitter account.
“The area they were in was off limits to foreign tourists”, it said.
Mexican government on Monday demanded Egypt launch a “swift and in-depth” investigation into the “accidental airstrike” on a convoy of tourists including 15 Mexicans.
Five other Mexicans were described as being in “stable” condition in an area hospital, the Foreign Ministry said.
“U.S. Embassy spokesman Brian Shott said officials are looking into whether an American citizen was involved in the incident”, added the report. “The Mexican side is receiving the best care and we will take care of the Egyptian victims”, Mehleb said in a statement.
A police source said special forces were carrying out an operation involving air support about 150km west of Bahariya.
According to the Mexican Foreign Ministry, at least two of the dead are Mexican nationals. However, a local tour guide told BBC that the Mexican tourists were not in a restricted area.
The government says that hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed, many in attacks claimed by Sinai Province.
“A working group has been formed to examine the causes and circumstances of the incident as well as the justification for the presence of a tourist group in a region to which access is prohibited”, the ministry said.
Cairo has been battling an Islamic insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula for years.
Egypt has been struggling with a range of Islamist militant groups operating in its deserts, including forces allied with the so-called Islamic State.
The Daesh group in Egypt said in a statement that it had “resisted a military operation in the Western Desert” on Sunday.
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After Egypt’s military deposed former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013, Islamist militants stepped up attacks against military targets in the Western Desert.
